their take on who has the advantage in the all-important female vote. and a good morning to all of you, welcome to "weekends with alex witt," we're going to get to what's happening right now out there as we have 17 days until the election. and first we go to front page politics. this weekend both president obama and mitt romney are preparing for monday's third and final debate, with some contentious campaigning on friday. the president unleashed a new line of attacks during a rally in virginia saying governor romney has shifted his position on several key issues. >> he's changing up so much, and backtracking, and sidestepping. we've got a -- we've got a -- we've got to name this condition that he's going through. i think -- i think it's called romnesia. >> got the laugh. well mitt romney was quick to respond. here's what he said to the crowd at daytona beach, florida. >> they have no agenda for the future. no agenda for america.

no agenda for a second term. it's a good thing, they won't have a second term. they have -- they've been reduced to petty attacks, and silly word games. >> new this morning politico reports president obama's campaign hauled in an election cycle best of $126 million in september. the romney camp said early this week it would raise about $170 million during september in conjunction with the rnc. the campaign has until tonight to formally file its september financial report. well, joining me now for more front page politics, white house reporter for "the washington post," david knack moor ra and white house correspondent for the hill, amie parnes. good to see you. >> good to see you. >> you heard the new phrase, amie, it's been an election year of these catch phrases. we've recently had binders full of women, 47%, now we have romnesia. what do you make of the president's new line here?

is this label going to stick, romnesia? >> oh, yeah if i were to put money on it, alex, i'd bet it's here to stay. i think that it was a catch phrase on twitter all day. it trended worldwide. you saw vice president biden using it. they've obviously poll tested it. this is something we're going to hear through the end of the election. >> i don't doubt you, come to think about it. anyway, david, mitt romney countered the president's comment by calling it a pretty attack. he also called the president's campaign a quote, incredible shrinking campaign. do these kinds of attacks, when either party, win points with voters? >> when you talk to experts about this they'll say the polling will show voters are turned off by this and it tamps down turnout but when you actually look at the data, it actually in some cases the more negative the campaign, the more turnout there is. and i think the reason is, because it plays well to the, you know, the candidate's own base. and you saw yesterday i think in the clip you showed right there that when the president used the term romnesia the crowd

immediately reacted. as amie said, it was trending on twitter. it can rile up your own base and so i think, as amy said, the president is going to keep at this as long as he gets that kind of reaction. >> amie, both the president and governor romney are taking time off this weekend to prepare for monday's final debate on foreign policy. what are you hearing about how the president is preparing? and what does he need to do in this final debate monday? >> well, the president's in camp david. he'll be there all weekend. he went with his chief speech writer, david plouffe, they're all with him, john kerry is there. i think that you'll see him sort of take the same path that he took last week. they were very pleased with his performance last week. he kind of struck a good balance. he came out as aggressive. so i think that he needs to do the same thing. i think that what you'll see is, you'll kind of see some of that and you'll see him kind of take to task. he'll kind of point to in his closing arguments lately he's been saying, he's been portraying romney as a severe conservative.

he's been saying he's a flip-flopper. so i think you'll see both arguments in the debate on monday. >> you know, david, mitt romney has not really mentioned libya and the attacks there since struggling with 9 second debate. how do you expect governor romney to handle this issue in the final debate monday? and you think he could make up for the trouble that he had with it in the second one. >> he was widely thought to sort of stumble there in the second debate where he picked a fight over whether the president had called the libya attack an act of terror, and then the president did point to a transcript right in the rose garden that he did and candy crowley the moderator confirmed that. this time i think the romney campaign, and the governor, will maybe sort of try to exploit another line, which is that, you know, the consulate itself had asked for additional security the month leading up to this attack. of course they didn't know something would happen but they did ask for more security there and the administration didn't provide it. joe biden said during his debate that the administration didn't know about it. of course the state department did know. there had been a hearing. whether the white house knew or not i think that's something romney might try to go after. >> do you think, amie, the president or the governor, will try to shift the debate from

foreign policy to the economy? >> yes, i definitely think so. i think this election isn't going to be won on foreign policy. it's going to be won on the economy. you saw that in the last debate there was only one question on foreign policy. so i think that you'll see maybe the president talk about energy a little bit, and the economy, and how he's continuing to improve it. and you know, he's also going to tout foreign policy a little bit, too. he's going to say, you know, we did capture osama bin laden. he is dead. we did bring an end to two wars. you're going to see all of that on monday. >> so, david, the polls continue to tighten. the key battleground states, in particular. when you look at the swing states where do you think this race is going to come down to? >> well, i think one shorthand way to do it is to find out where bruce springsteen is at all times. that might be the key moment. he was in ohio this week. it's not a coincidence. and with bill clinton on thursday campaigning for president obama that he went to iowa, i think for the obama campaign those are important states where the auto bailout has played well and unemployment is a little bit lower than elsewhere. i think for mitt romney, florida and virginia now are places where he's making up ground.

but also for him ohio is very important. no republican has won without ohio. and so, ohio is really the center of it all. >> absolutely. well, you know, they don't call him the boss for nothing. >> absolutely. >> both of you, thank you so much. see you again soon. so right now we're getting the last look at state unemployment numbers before the election. and the new numbers show the unemployment rate fell in 41 states, six of those were swing states. joining me now hitha prabhakar. good morning to you. >> good morning, alex. >> where were some of the declines? >> according to the date too from the bureau of labor statistics, unemployment dropped in all but two presidential battleground states. the rates stayed the same in virginia coming in at 5.6 -- excuse me 5.9%. and in new hampshire, which is at 5.7%. and that comes as a surprise, since rates have been declining there over the past year. the jobless rate in ohio went down to 7% in september from 7.2% in august. unemployment also fell in

wisconsin, colorado, and florida. nevada, michigan, and north carolina still have some of the worst unemployment rates of some of the swing states coming in at 11.8%, 9.6%, and 9.3%. nevada, in particular, has some of the highest foreclosures per home unit during the housing crisis. and economists tell me it's had the worst economy of any swing state. >> yeah. well, we have the president, who's leading in most of the battleground states according to the polls from the nbc/"wall street journal"/marist, as well as cbs/"new york times" quarterback quinnipiac polls, how important are these states in securing the votes for economic or financial twist there? >> according to analysts they're very important. while debates have brought up other issues the economy is still the most important thing voters care about. polls taken during the past week show that romney narrowing or eliminating the president's lead in these states, but with good news like that, what we're seeing right now are the tables turning likely in the president's favor. alex?

>> okay. hitha, thank you so much. we appreciate that. and she will be back in about 10 minutes. don't go too far. now turning to your saturday forecast. here's a live look from the top of rockefeller center. there you see, yes, it's the ice rink everyone. it's in place already. here we are in mid-october. in many places you can expect a major change in your weather though. nbc meteorologist dylan dwyer is here with the forecast. >> fall foliage hitting its peak across much of the country. the weather this weekend should cooperate. things are looking mostly quiet. we do have some rain showers up across the northeast, especially the new england area, but those showers across cape cod should be exiting as we go through most of the morning. it looks like we will see improving conditions, actually pretty mild day across the northeast. we also have some scattered showers through the great lakes region. that upper level low is going to bring off and on showers, a mix of sun and clouds, through areas like flint, michigan, into the detroit area, also across portions along the shores of lake erie. we are going to see some

scattered showers, as well. nothing too heavy. but still nuisance showers for your saturday. temperaturewise, we are looking for a chilly start to the day, minneapolis. the temperature should warm up nicely. in fact, we're looking at highs about 10 to 15 degrees above average through areas like kansas city, minneapolis is a little cooler for today, then we'll rebound as we go into your sunday. temperatures in boston up around 70 degrees. so it does look really nice again those scattered showers through the great lakes region down across the gulf coast states. a lot of sunshine. then as we head into sunday, temperatures look pretty nice, too. with those warmer temperatures starting to move back into the great lakes region where it is going to be a little bit chillier as we go through the day. >> dylan, thank you for that heads up. we have live reports from washington and florida as the candidates are gearing up for their final debate. also, millions of people have voted early. which candidate has the edge on that so far? plus how the final days of campaigning have provided lots of material for comedy writers. we have the best punch lines coming up here on "weekends with alex witt."

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ka the presidential candidates are leaving the campaign trail to prepare for their last face-off at monday night's debate. governor romney is doing his preparations for questions on foreign policy. he and congressman paul ryan held a rally in daytona beach, florida, attacking president obama. nbc's peter alexander is in florida with the very latest. and a very good morning to you, peter. >> good morning to you, alex. you know, it was interesting last night, you've been talking all morning about the fireworks that we witnessed this past week in the debate. they closed last night's event

here for paul ryan and mitt romney with fireworks. i'm sure we'll see plenty more on monday. and before they retreat from the campaign trail, actually, mitt romney squeezed in a couple more attacks at the president, particularly responding to the president's attack accusing romney of what he described as romnesia. take a listen. >> have you been watching the obama campaign lately? it's ads are remarkable. they have no agenda for the future. no agenda for -- for america. no agenda for a second term. it's a good thing, they won't have a second term. >> specifically on that romnesia comment, mitt romney said that the president, his campaign, had been reduced to what he called petty attacks, alex, and silly word games. >> some of which unfortunately might stick. i think romnesia is going to be around for awhile. peter, how about looking ahead to monday night's debate. is it possible either the president or governor romney might try to switch off from

foreign policy and move to the economy? >> yeah, it is a good question. and the conversations i've had with advisers of the romney campaign is just that. that this focus while primarily on foreign policy is as much about leadership, competence and a vision for the future. so while obviously there will be a series of attacks, including among them lightly the topic of libya, as you guys have been reporting, just yesterday, some state department documents were released by house republicans, including a cable from ambassador chris stevens that was written a month before that deadly attack, where he said, warning prophetically that the attacks and the new violence in that country were not random, but were targeted, and discriminate. it's likely there will be some more litigating on the situation in libya. but particularly, the romney campaign believes it's economic message and its message of bipartisan leadership is one that resonates. they have a new ad out, and one other note, i was asking them specifically about the state of ohio, where this may all be decided, and barely two weeks from now, alex.

they say while the early voting favors the president right now, that they are ahead of the early voting goals and they're pretty confident that if they can stay in this position, they will run away with it on election day. >> ohio, ohio, ohio. we will see. thanks very much from florida, though. we appreciate that, peter alexander. next let's check in on president obama's debate preparations today. we go to nbc's mike viqueira who is joining me live from the white house. >> good morning, alex. >> what is the latest? we have the president -- he's not there behind you, right? >> he is not there behind me, yesterday afternoon the president did something he hadn't done for the previous two debates, for this third debate, trying something new. he's off to camp david. it's not far and it's not in a swing state. it's in maryland's mountains. obviously the presidential retreat most people are familiar with it. the president doesn't use it as often as his predecessor. but remember he went to nevada and spent three days in debate camp prior to the first debate. then it was off to colonial williamsburg, another close-by locale for the second debate. both of those being swing states. the president now hunkering down

in the quiet on top of that mountain up in the cacoctin mountains of maryland to prepare for that second debate down in boca raton on monday night. you saw the rally that the president had here in northern virginia. he's had several rallies. that is a voter-rich area. that is the place where the swing voters reside in the twin state of virginia. the president has visited it several times, visiting george mason university in fairfax yesterday, and unfailing that new line we've already been talking about all morning, alex. >> virginia, you heard of the new deal. you've heard of the square deal, the fair deal. mitt romney is trying to give you a sketchy deal. >> that was just last week when he unveiled that one. seems like a blast from the past. you mention something with peter i wanted to touch on. could this debate, which is ostensibly supposed to be about foreign policy turn back to the economy? that's a little counterintuitive. but there is one place where the economy and foreign policy come together, and that is the issue

of china. a very important issue in ohio, which as you and peter mention, could decide everything, because many jobs over the course of the last decade, even a generation, from ohio, those heavy industrial jobs have been shipped off to china, that's why you've heard mitt romney time and time again over the course of the last several weeks really hitting china as being a cheater on world trade saying he's going to get tough. trying to eat away into the president's advantage on foreign policy. and the advantage he enjoys among auto workers in ohio, alex. >> okay. well, thank you for that perspective. mike viqueira. so could the last debate change or influence your vote? get on twitter and let me know what you think. miable is @alexwitt. i will be reading some of your tweets throughout the day. big money headlines are next. why a decrease in home sales is actually a good thing. the silver lining, next. but first, trying to be like tim tebow? well that might just cost you now. the new york jets backup quarterback has officially trade marked tebowing.

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now to our three big money headlines. housing hopes, stocks slide, and christmas for the 1%. ooh this should be interesting. hitha prabhakar is back with more on this. let's talk first of sales about previously owned homes, hitha. that decrease in september, from the highest level in two years, is a decrease in sales, though, necessarily bad? >> no, alex. analysts are saying not at all. so, yeah, the sales definitely went down. it's been the lowest in the last two years. but purchases actually came down from 1.7% to about 4.7 million. but that's up 11% since -- the highest it's been since the previous year. so that's a good thing. one of the reasons why really has to do with the fact that there's no inventory to actually buy. a lot of those hedge fund managers are going out there and snapping up all that property for people to rent. and homeowners now are saying that they want to kind of keep that property, so they're waiting for a good time to sell so prices are right. >> okay, but it's great news to share in housing starts? >> right, housing starts are up.

they've been up to the highest they've been in the last four years since september in the last four years. mortgage rates are also going down, and prices are going up. so i think that has to do with that sort of adds to the optimism about these housing numbers here. >> what about the earnings season which kicked off this week? we had some bad news for two of the biggest companies. what happened there? >> right, we're talking about mcdonald's and google. mcdonald's, investors are certainly not loving it. mcdonald's came in, quarterly earnings, the worst it's been in nine years. quarterly income fell 3.5% to 1.4 billion dollars. and sales slipped 0.2% to $7 billion. now, google released their earnings statement a little bit early, about 3 1/2 hours prior to when it was supposed to be released. investors ended up selling off almost $33 billion, alex. >> wow. speaking of wow, holiday spending is supposed to grow by the one percenters by how much?

>> one percenters are actually going to add about 35% to the holiday spend, totalling that up to about $600 million according to a study that came out on american express. now, alex, i'm getting ready to give my holiday list to a one percenter already because i know i have some high network stuff on there. basically, women are really going to be the ones that are driving that. about 37% of the women are going to be buying high net worth -- high -- i guess you should say, expensive items for their spouses. meanwhile the rest of the country, the average spend, according to the national retail federation, is going to be around $421. >> hmm. okay. well thanks for the heads up on the holiday spending. we'll see you later. in our within-minute play back bill mayher making one. >> you don't need to rush into your wife's arms and clutch her for strength after a 90 minute debate. i wouldn't like talking to mitt romney, either.

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[ male announcer ] use any citi® card to get the benefits of private pass. more concerts. more events. more experiences. [ jack ] hey, who's boring now? [ male announcer ] get more access with a citi card. [ crowd cheering, mouse clicks ] welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." it is just about 7:30. half past the hour here. time now for a look at some other stories in today's fast five headlines. it's an official day of mourning in lebanon. but there's plenty of anger following yesterday's deadly car bombings. protesters today set up roadblocks of burning tires and overturned trash dumpsters to express their outrage. that bombing killed a top lebanese security officer and seven other people. banana boat sunscreen is recalling its spray-on ultramist because of a fire risk. yeah. it occurs when a user gets too close to an open flame. the company says at least five people have been burned in such instances. a power failure stalls a

ride at a texas state fair last night leaving two dozen riders stranded about 165 feet up in the air for about two hours. no one was hurt but the same ride reportedly suffered the very same problem at the minnesota state fair in august. so beware with the stratosphere. and iconic symbol of the texas state fair has gone up in flames. the 52 foot tall big tex got fire yesterday. by the time the put out it was nothing but a shell. an electrical malfunction is believed to be the cause of that fire. finally they've tied the knot. justin timberlake and jessica biel are husband and wife. word is the big bash cost an estimated $6.5 million. wow. what are the party favors on that one? and those are your fast five headlines. the final state employment report before the election is now in and 41 states saw their unemployment rate drop last month. among the eight swing states, none saw a rise in unemployment. and some even fell. but still half do have

unemployment rates above the national average. so what does all this mean for the election? we know who we're bringing in now. mark murray, nbc news senior political editor to answer these questions. good day to you. >> good morning, alex. >> so let's take a closer look at these key states. we have first in florida the unemployment rate. that is 8.7%. ohio it's 7.0%. virginia, unemployment is 5.9%. so both ohio and virginia are down from august. florida is holding steady. does this then get interpreted as a win for president obama? >> it is a good potential story for president obama to tell at least in two of those states. we're talking about ohio and virginia, with the unemployment rate being at 7% in ohio, and in the fives in virginia and when you're close to five you're almost at full employment. so that is a very good story for president obama to tell, in addition to the national unemployment rate now being at 7.8% from a high of 10 percentage points. so he can tell that story. you're going to end up hearing

the romney campaign, though, making their argument that they've been doing over the last several months that things could be much better with his policies. so, really, that's going to be the closing arguments that we're going to hear over the next couple of weeks, alex. >> you make a point. you say if you can tell that story. because are states unemployment rates more important to voters than national numbers? i mean, in certain states, do they -- are they more aware of them than others? >> that's a great question. in the political scientists who have actually looked into this think that the national unemployment rate is more significant than state unemployment rate. that what people are feeling is something national, not necessarily oh, my goodness the unemployment rate is at 5% in iowa, i'm so much better off than my neighbor or my friend who might be living in florida, where the unemployment rate is near 9%. so there is more kind of a, according to political scientists, more of a national attitude about the unemployment rate than states. however as we all know getting those 270 electoral votes is state by state. you can end up hearing the obama campaign make their pitch to

these people. >> i'm just curious if people are aware of the extremes when it comes to unemployment rates. if you look at them we have nevada and north dakota. nevada has the highest unemployment rate. we talk about that one all the time at 11.8%. north dakota has the lowest, just 3% there. >> well, there is a big despa dispari disparity. where we're seeing the highest unemployment rates, florida, nevada, battleground states, that's where the housing crisis will end up being the worst. where there was the biggest housing bubble, and the biggest pop. and you're actually see that places that didn't really end up having those housing bubbles in some of these states, particularly in the midwest, also states that you were just talking about like north dakota, and particularly north dakota, there's been a big energy boom in those states with fracking and things like that. but, you -- the states that really ended up having the biggest housing issues were the ones that are continuing to still have the highest unemployment rates in the country. >> what about this new nbc poll regarding iowa and wisconsin?

that's where the president is maintaining his lead among likely voters. neither state saw much of a shift in september. so did the debate have any impact? >> well, according to that poll, no. and if you're the obama campaign you like those numbers. you like being up six points in wisconsin, eight points in iowa, because if president obama wins those two states plus ohio that gets him past the 270 electoral votes. i will tell you when our iowa poll came out the romney people were saying whoa, whoa, wait a second. our numbers show the race much closer than that. i think everyone should be prepared for a very, very close presidential election come november 6th. >> okay. so let's look at one scenario here, with the electoral map. you're so good at doing. what's it look like if the president takes both iowa and wisconsin? >> well, then all of a sudden he is so much closer to 270 electoral votes. as i mentioned, he can end up winning ohio, and he closes the deal. he could end up winning a combination of colorado and virginia. he closes the deal. he could end up winning a combination of nevada, colorado,

new hampshire, and that gets him there. and so he has a whole lot of paths to 270 electoral votes. all of a sudden if mitt romney picks off an iowa or wisconsin that widens mitt romney's map and it actually ends up narrowing president obama's. >> okay. this is going to be a long night i'm telling you. mark murray, thank you very much. >> thanks. >> former president bill clinton is urging voters to have patience when it comes to the economy. at a campaign rally last night in green bay, wisconsin, he asked voters to stick with president obama so the economy can continue to grow. >> there shouldn't be a race. the only reason it is, is that americans are impatient want things done the day before yesterday, and they don't understand why the economy is not totally hunky-dory now. >> republicans haven't won wisconsin since 1984 but the gop is focusing heavily on that state with wisconsin congressman paul ryan as the republican vice presidential nominee. a new gallup poll confirms what those instant surveys said about tuesday night's

presidential debate. president obama won. 51% named the president the winner, 37% sided with mitt romney. 10% said neither really came out ahead. which is quite a reversal of fortune from that first debate in which 71% gave mr. romney the victory. in this week's office politics more of my conversation with the stars of our morning crew, joe scarborough and mika brzezinski. we tacking the tea party and its influence on the gop. mika shares a thanksgiving story that went from the dinner table out to the front lawn. but we start with the gop and the female vote. >> for many months, a party that was in search of itself, and it damaged its brand. i think, though, again you look at the latest polls, it's pretty close. >> i don't really understand why it is. because when you look -- it's so stark. i mean you can look at some of the first things president obama did when he got in to office. he passed the lily ledbetter act, something that is very important to you or me, to all

women. he established -- >> it's posh to me, too. i support it. >> right, you sure do. he established the white house council on women and girls. he has worked to, through the small business administration, get more women into the workforce, into the economy, starting up businesses, making sure they have access to capital. he has done more for women, in my opinion, than any president in my recent memory. in my lifetime. and he did it from day one. so i'm surprised by these polls, and i think women really ought to look at the data. >> but then you've got herman cain and the insanity of that candidacy. before that sarah palin, who clearly wasn't ready to president of the united states being floated. our good friend donald trump being in first place for awhile. it was -- it was for many months a party that was in search of itself. and it damaged its brand. i think, though, again you look at the latest polls, it's pretty close. >> what has the tea party done

to the republican party? there doesn't seem to be a lot of embracing of diverse thinking. how much has it damaged the republican party? >> well, i don't know how the republican brand is doing now, if you just look at the election last year in 2010, or two years ago. the tea party was part of a coalition that gave republicans the largest majority landslide nationwide in the history of the country. if you take what happened on the congressional record level, and what happened on the state level, republicans won more seats in 2010 than ever before. >> but do you think that was because of tea party ideology, or because the economy was tanking, and it was like, anything but what we have going on. >> i think it was a combination of both. i think that there are a lot of people who are very energized by calls for smaller government. i think this president overplayed his hand in 2009 and 2010. just like bill clinton overplayed his hand in 1993 and 1994. and elected guys like me. you know, the tea party is

really more of the same. the tea party is a combination of what elected means in '94, which is a combination of very conservative republicans, and perot supporters. i spent more time in '93 and '94 going to united we stand meetings, which the perot group which survived ross perot's very shaky campaign, and i knew that sort of the wine and cheese republicans, the establishment republicans, would never vote for me but they also knew that i would get enough of what really was then sort of the tea party contingent. you know, the party plus the independents that supported perot. to put me over the top. and it did. >> can i ask you, you brought up something that this just popped to mind. with your father being who he is in the carter administration, you being a democrat, you've got these two brothers, one of whom works for mitt romney. >> right. >> what in the world is thanksgiving dinner like around your table? >> we've had some bad ones.

but we talk about -- >> can't talk about the iraq war. >> no, we can't talk about that. >> fist fight on the front lawn. seriously. >> my mother got us sick one day. but that's a different story. you know what? there've been some really -- to have the boys and my dad stirring the pot and my mom the artist and me. it's why i do this show right now. literally. i am the family diplomat. i am made to do the morning joe show every morning because of what my family put me through. because they fought. my parents celebrated fighting it out over ideological differences, differences on foreign policy, on world view, on social issues. my dad would put something on the table, red meat, and we'd all go after it. it started like at age 5. we'd be asked about, you know, the economy, and i'd be like, well -- well first of all, could you tell me what that is? i'm 5. but they wanted us to think, and they wanted us to put ourselves out there and expose ourselves, and learn what it's like to

really engage. >> and they celebrated until thanksgiving -- >> my mother hates when i tell tat story. >> 2004. middle of the iraq war. >> it was just the boys weren't getting along. >> ian brzezinski worked for don rumsfeld. right under don rumsfeld. mark brzezinski worked for bill clinton, and now is an ambassador in sweden, for barack obama. and they got into a fight. >> yeah. >> over thanksgiving dinner. over the iraq war. it started as a -- it started in the dining room. >> it was heated. >> ended up on the front lawn. >> it was very heated. you know how boys are. >> exactly like a kennedy flag football -- >> no, there was none of that. >> punch in the face. >> at noon joe talks about his life in congress. mika shares why she thinks joe is a savant. and both discuss the future of "morning joe." in a moment, a newspaper endorsement for president obama that you might have expected mitt romney should have received. you're watching "weekends with alex witt." i don't spend money

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introducing the new droid razr maxx hd by motorola. now more than ever droid does. well, mitt romney saved the salt lake city olympic games from becoming a financial disaster and he shares a common religious bond with so many there, as you might expect the republican nominee to garner an endorsement from the city's major newspaper. think again. the salt lake tribune is endorsing president obama, citing a number of reasons, including the president's stimulus spending, auto industry bailout, and foreign policy. about romney, "the tribune" says he morphed into a friend of the far right and quickly shifted back to the center. too many mitts lacks detail.

talk about -- with a smile, the endorsement coming from the onion. of course the last we saw of edwards he was emerging from a north carolina courthouse a free man back in may after an acquittal and mistrial. related to campaign corruption charges. the onion says this country needs a man like edwards to appeal to the better angels of our nature. quote, a leader well versed in the moral and legal foundations of our freedoms, and will work to uphold them. yeah, once again the onion is a news satire organization. well the campaigns have provided countless punch lines and materials for tv comics. this week the president appeared on "the daily show" with jon stewart. the episode which is the latest in a week of comedy straight from the campaign trail. >> i'm sorry, martha, but with all due respect this is a bunch of malarkey. all right? >> a bunch of malarkey? >> yeah. >> what does that mean? >> it's irish. >> no, no, no.

irish is i come over there and smack that dumb look off your face. >> follow your instincts on this one. >> my instincts say that paul ryan's getting his ass kicked in the debate. >> oh, yeah. what's that like? >> how many times a week does biden show up in a wet bathing suit to a meeting? just ball park figure? >> i had to put out a presidential directive on that. we had to stop that. >> you got to put towels down? >> i got to say, though, he looks pretty good. >> lindsay lohan has at long last revealed which presidential candidate she backs. >> as of now i'm thinking mitt romney. as of now. >> as of now. as of now. she hits a car with an obama bumper sticker that could change. but as of now, she's endorsing mitt romney. >> one of president obama's goals tonight is to win back female voters. yeah. yeah, which explains why obama's going to answer every question with a passage from 50 shades of

grey. >> romney had some odd moments like when describing his efforts as governor to recruit more women for cabinet positions. >> i went to a number of women's groups and said can you help us find folks? and they brought us whole binders full of women. >> binder of women, book of broads, notebook of nipples, whatever. whatever. >> personally, i don't even know why they had a debate. as far as i'm concerned this race was over last night when honey boo-boo child made her official endorsement. who are you going to support for president, mitt romney or barack obama? >> barack obama. >> right. so you're voting for barack obama? >> i'm putting to the a scrapbook of the whole 2012 campaign, and i don't -- i have these great pictures from the two debates. do you know which debate was which? >> cute. cute, jon. >> you know, we really should spend the whole show with that

stuff. we have since learned that 2.8 million people watched the president during the first airing of "the daily show." probably got a good laugh. straight ahead michelle obama on the campaign trail promoting early voting but how many are following her advice and how does it change the political landscape? [ male announcer ] here's a fun fact: this single scoop of gain gives more freshness than a whole box of this other stuff... and that much freshness is gonna take some getting used to... [ sniffing ] ahh. mmm! [ male announcer ] yep, it's amazing what a single scoop of gain freshness can do. and now get even more gain at a new lower price! ♪ i just finished a bowl of your new light chicken pot pie soup and it's so rich and creamy... is it really 100 calories? let me put you on webcan... ...lean roasted chicken... and a creamy broth mmm i can still see you. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

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you're going to hear it all day today. 17 days to go until the election. as of today, over 3.3 million people have voted. the key swing states have seen a strong turnout. 620,000 in florida, 502,000 in ohio, 211,000 in virginia. joining me now is the man with all of the data, michael mcdonald. he's the head of the u.s. elections project. nice to see you again, michael. thanks for joining me. >> great to be with you again. >> let's take a look at where things stand versus 2008.

how tows it compare in terms of early voting? >> 2008 we're on pace to meet or exceed the number in this election. >> i know you're keeping an close eye on everything. which candidate has the lead? >> that's what everybody wants to know. in a couple of states we can't tell. florida, ohio, virginia, we have healthy levels of early voting up perhaps over 2008 but it's very difficult at this point to tell who may be winning, which is confirming what we already know from the polling in those states. the early vote seems to confirm what we already know with the polling. i think the one state to watch at this point continues to be iowa. iowa, democrats -- registered democrats are turning out very strongly at similar levels they did in 2008. the early vote we're seeing in iowa looks very good for obama.

it seems to be confirming your own poll actually which had a subsample of early voters. we see very good numbers for obama. with over 300,000 people voting in iowa, it's the highest volume of early voting we're seeing in any state. the numbers are really starting to pile up. it's so lidifying it and mitt romney has his work cut out for him in that state. >> what's driving all of that? yesterday, bill clinton, michelle obama, they were pushing the early voting drive in wisconsin, the get out the vote now or on election day. what do you think it is that's driving people to the polls right now? >> part of it is, i think, that people are just kind of sick of the election. it's been going on for quite a while. >> wait, michael. does that mean to say that if people cast their vote, do you think they say, i'm done? i tune out. >> they are in fact done. the campaigns won't phone them anymore. they won't send them any mail. election officials share that information with the campaigns, who's already voted.

if you want to get off the phone lists and everything else, you want to get off this crazy thing, go ahead and vote. you can't escape the television ads but you can escape the personal contacts. >> yeah. one of our producers, nick, who i call out on the air who is at home in ohio. he tuned out after a day. he said it's saturated in ohio. as you can imagine. can i ask you quickly about florida? we have 39.5% of early voters registered democrats, 45% republican. can we infer that mitt romney has the early lead there? >> boy, that's a difficult state. there's a lot of spinning going on in florida. so those numbers initially they look very good for romney. more registered republicans than registered democrats voting. we don't know exactly who they're voting for but we have a good idea if you register with a party you probably support the party's nominee. score one for romney. it looks very good. but those are mail ballots and traditionally in florida republicans do very well among

mail ballots, in fact, much better than they're currently doing. score one for obama. the obama campaign is encouraging people to vote by mail and vote in person. it's really a tossup. i wouldn't draw anything from the numbers. >> as we end this, ohio sends a mail ballot to every registered voter in the state. michael, we're out of time. you know we'll have you back. come back and see us. >> my pleasure. >> that's a wrap up of this hour with "weekends with alex witt." today we'll have a two hour edition. straight ahead we have more smart political talk on "up with chris hayes" right here on msnbc. [ mother ] you can't leave the table

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